"Bloomsbury presents The Easy Life by Marguerite Duras, read by Caroline Hewitt.
'One of the 20th century's greatest thinkers and prose stylists' New York Times
'A novel of the disquieting contours of family, and of the mind, and of life unceasing even in the midst of death by one of the most important, visionary writers of all time' Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy
WITH A FOREWORD BY KATE ZAMBRENO
There’s nothing to do about boredom, I’m bored, but one day I won’t be bored anymore. Soon I’ll know that it’s not even worth the trouble. We’ll have the easy life.
Twenty-five-year-old Francine Veyrenattes, confined to the family farm, already feels that life is passing her by. But after Francine lets slip a terrible secret, culminating in the violent deaths of her brother and uncle, her world is shattered.
Fleeing the farm for the seaside, Francine finds herself disintegrating. Lying in the sun with her toes in the sand, she restlessly wishes for things to be somehow easier, to have a life worth living.
But then the calm and quiet is broken yet again – by another tragedy and a senseless death, in which Francine finds herself implicated. Cast out of paradise, and stranded between her home and the rest of the world, she must confront her rapidly dissolving sense of self if she is to find a way to survive.
'It’s a masterpiece, and a little known, if not unknown, masterpiece … Any serious reader of this author’s work must begin with this novel' YVES BERGER C 2022 Kate Zambreno C 2022 Marguerite Duras C 2022 Emma Ramadan P 2022 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC C 2022 Olivia Baes"
"Marguerite Duras, the Elena Ferrante of French literature, rose to global stardom with her erotic masterpiece The Lover (L'Amant), which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt, has over a million copies in print in English, has been translated into forty-three languages, and was adapted into a canonical film in 1992. While almost all of Duras's novels have been translated into English, her debut The Impudent Ones (Les Impudents) has been a glaring exception—until now. Fans of Duras will be thrilled to discover the germ of her bold, vital prose and signature blend of memoir and fiction in this intense and mournful story of the Taneran family, which introduces Duras's classic themes of familial conflict, illicit romance, and scandal in the sleepy suburbs and southwest provinces of postwar France.
With storytelling that evokes in equal parts beauty and brutality, Duras depicts the scalding effect of seduction and disrepute on the soul of a young French girl. Duras's great gift was her ability to bring to vivid and passionate life characters with whom society may not have sympathized, but with whom readers certainly do. Through its striking prose and strong feminist themes, The Impudent Ones will delight established Duras fans and new audiences alike."
"Monsieur Andesmas, setenta y ocho años, compra una casa para su hija Valeria. Quiere construir una terraza que domine sobre la llanura, un pueblo, el mediterráneo. Espera al contratista que se ha retrasado. El libro es la relación de acontecimientos que se suceden entre las cuatro y media y la caída del sol, durante toda esta tarde en la que M. Andesmas espera. Una delicia. Dice Amelia Gamoneda en el prólogo de este libro: Fue mi padre, Antonio Gamoneda, quien, siendo yo adolescente, me dio a leer el libro durasiano que él llamaba La siesta de M. Andesmas, iniciando así una cadena de incitaciones a ir y a volver hacia ese libro que, si en él fueron repeticiones puntuales, en mí tomaron forma de dedicación estudiosa durante largos años. Esta pulsión de regreso no es sólo actitud de padre e hija. Cuenta Enrique Vila-Matas que también él suele volver a esta novela en los días «en los que [le vence] una extraña modorra, quizá por haber[se] quedado de pronto sin incertidumbre acerca del arte de novelar», y porque ese texto «origina todo tipo de ideas narrativas de lo más subversivas [que le permiten] ir felizmente recuperando [su] inseguridad, pues todo el libro es un estimulante tratado de poesía de las incertezas»."
"Catherine Lacey (Nobody Is Ever Missing), Akhil Sharma (Family Life), Francoise Mouly (art editor at The New Yorker), and Kate Zambreno (Heroines, Green Girl) discuss the acclaimed novel in celebration of its 30th anniversary. Marguerite Duras’ (Hiroshima Mon Amour) haunting, luminous book tells of the tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her Chinese lover in pre-war Indochina. With a reading by Kathleen Chalfant (The Affair, Angels in America on Broadway)."
"Catherine Lacey (Nobody Is Ever Missing), Akhil Sharma (Family Life), Francoise Mouly (art editor at The New Yorker), and Kate Zambreno (Heroines, Green Girl) discuss the acclaimed novel in celebration of its 30th anniversary. Marguerite Duras’ (Hiroshima Mon Amour) haunting, luminous book tells of the tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her Chinese lover in pre-war Indochina. With a reading by Kathleen Chalfant (The Affair, Angels in America on Broadway)."
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